Every once in a blue moon, the traction control light on my 2005 R50 will come on, at seemingly random times. If I shut her off and start back up, it will go away until another blue moon comes along. Today I was sitting in traffic and the traction control light came on, AND my SES light flashed 4 or 5 times. I noticed a stutter on acceleration and a rough idle, and was slightly low on power, like a slight miss. She ran like this all the way home. When I got home I plugged in my scanner and got a "P03" which I'm assuming is a P0300, "random/multiple cylinder misfire". After starting the car again, the code went away and the TC light was gone also.

Now, I've had a P2097 code hanging around for a long time, and at 178k miles I think my cat is dead (O2 sensors are NOT the issue). I've been putting off fixing this, although the time is quickly approaching. I don't think it's related, but thought I'd throw it out there.

Is there any correlation between the TC light and the CEL? What causes the CEL to flash a few times as opposed to staying on steady?

This poor old girl is really starting to get on my nerves, and while I love her... well, ya know.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

I had a similar issue with my R53 (it was combined with a TMAP issue as well which confused the diagnosis). I found that I had a bad spark plug, which had a pair of cracks in the insulator up at the plug wire connector. It took me a while to get there, as I had recently changed the plugs and swore up and down that they were fine-Wrong. I'd check the plugs and the plug wires, if you have a bad plug, the spark will actually arc past the end of the boot to the plug surround. This shows up as a burn track across the very end of the boot and can be removed with Isopropyl alcohol and a Qtip.
The ASC or DSC light comes on because of the misfire and the accompanying loss of power, which then disengages the traction control. The SES light flashes because the misfire is intermittent, it flashes each time that the cylinder misfires.

 

I had a similar issue, first my traction control light would come on and then I would get a P300, it started with longer trips but eventually got to shorter distances. Eventually my serpentine belt broke, replaced the belt and the problem went away.

 

Thanks for the replies! I decided to try my luck today and drove to work, and no issues (50 miles round trip). I'd like to think it was a fluke, but know better.

SupeR, I hadn't thought of the power loss causing the DSC to light up, but I was at a stop when the DSC/CEL came on. Definitely a good thought!

OVR, I'm due for a new belt anyway (last one I ordered was too long and haven't bought another), so one way or another, thank you for the reminder!

I forgot to add one detail to the original post. While driving home yesterday after the incident (still a bit low on power with a rough idle), I scrolled through the digital display on the tach. Everything worked fine, except my "current mpg" (or whatever it's referred to as), always read 99.9. It didn't matter if I was stopped, cruising, or on the throttle. I've never seen it not working before. Between this and the fact that it wasn't a single cylinder that was misfiring, I was wondering if it couldn't be a fuel issue? I don't know how the MPG is calculated, whether it's based off of actual fuel delivery, throttle position/speed etc, but found it interesting. When I drove her today that display seemed to be working normally, so it must be *somehow* connected, whether it's fuel or electrical related.

 

I have a Cabrio 2006 R52 having the similar problem as OP's . It only happens when the car has warmed up and at stop/idle: SES/CEL flashing, DSC on, engine sputtering/rough, real time mpg 99.9 when car is moving/running. Flashing CEL, 99.9 mpg, sputtering/rough engine are all gone after the car in motion/running for about 5-10 minutes, but can happen again at stop/idle. If stopping and starting engine at stop/idle, all those are gone immediately, but it will happen again after while at next stop/idle.

So, the problem only starts at idle/stop with a warm engine, disappears after running a while until later stop/idle, and restarting engine can make it disappeared immediately, too until later stop/idle.

Has anyone found the cause and solution yet?

Thank you!

 

My traction control light is on all the time..!
As I drive down the driveway, before I hit he street...the first thing I do is to turn the traction control...off. MUCH more fun to drive.

Sorry, I'll shut up. Hope you find your problem(s).

Mike

 

While I haven't experienced this again since that incident, my TC light still comes on fairly regularly. Because I haven't noticed the miss again, and I only drive my car once or twice a month at the moment, so it hasn't bothered me too much. However I'm still very curious to see what the collective has to say.

 

+1 OCR ... my DSC is turned off permanently. I prefer to make my own decisions when driving.

 

Anybody find a solution to this problem? Just asking because I had this same issue today... I almost did a 80 miles trip when suddenly at a stop light SES start flashing and car shaking... I did move to the side... temp was ok, belt was ok... no fluids on the street.
after a long way back home, code p0303... TC light on that’s it....
any suggestions? Solutions? Could this be a bad coil? Spark plug? Injector? Or we call it a day and I burned a valve? :(
thanks